


Duty

by nobilis



Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: Cute, Established Relationship, Fluff, Gen, M/M, Near Future, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-09
Updated: 2018-08-09
Packaged: 2019-06-24 07:03:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15625317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nobilis/pseuds/nobilis
Summary: It's the start of Tsukasa's second year and as the new leader of Knights he has a lot weighing on his mind, but he at least has Ritsu to ease said thoughts.





	Duty

**Author's Note:**

> I started writing this a million years ago when I had a desire for soft ritsukasas. There is no plot. Just soft. Not very good softs since there is no plot, but it's soft nonetheless.

“Ritsu-senpai.”

Nothing. 

“Ritsu-senpai.”

A nudge this time, but still ineffective.

“RITSU-SENPAI!”

This time Ritsu let out an annoyed groan as he turned over and tugged the costume he had draped over him to roll over with him trying to ignore the younger idol.

Tsukasa let out an exasperated sigh. He thought when the new school year started that maybe Ritsu would change and try to break his bad habit of sleeping all day. He seemed to be doing so well at the end of school term back in March, but it looked like he was starting to regress back into his old habits.  

Now that Tsukasa has dealt with Ritsu for a year, he has learnt how to properly handle him. He couldn’t very well let the new prospective members of Knights see Ritsu like this since it wouldn’t make a very good first impression on their juniors.

Their juniors.

Somehow that had a nice ring to it. No longer was Tsukasa the ‘suekko’ of Knights. He was a second year and the leader of Knights now that Leo (and Izumi) have graduated. It was a bit lonely without the two of them, but It wasn’t like he could ask his seniors not to graduate to keep him company for a little while longer. They had their own futures to think of, much like how Tsukasa had to think about his. 

Tsukasa shook his head. It didn’t matter that they graduated because all that meant was he didn’t have to track down Leo during school hours anymore. The five of them still saw each other quite often. While Leo and Izumi were no longer officially part of Knights they still did plenty of things together in both their work and private lives. 

Still, it was a foreign feeling to him that Izumi was no longer there to give him one of his lectures for eating too many sweets, or having to reign in Leo from writing on the walls, but the first years that join will probably fill in those gaps in new and exciting ways. And that was something Tsukasa could say he was genuinely looking forward to as well.

During Compensation Festival, Tsukasa accepted the role as the next king of Knights from Leo, and there were still times he found it hard to believe that he was really the new leader. But even if it was hard to believe, it was an undeniable fact. He has now inherited the crown, and it was now both his duty and obligation to lead and set a good example for his unit mates.

Which meant he had to get Ritsu up.

“Ritsu-senpai, I am kindly asking you to please get up. We have to meet with the prospective members soon and I need you awake for that.” 

Since Ritsu continued to ignore him, Tsukasa decided it was time to bring out his secret weapon. 

“Hmmm... if Ritsu-senpai doesn’t get up I suppose I’ll have to talk to Onee-sama and tell her how she’s forbidden to tell Ritsu-senpai any more information on how Isara-senpai is doing.”

It was almost terrifying how fast that was able to get Ritsu up from his slumber. As Ritsu’s body shot up, his eyes met with Tsukasa’s, and it was easy to see how annoyed Ritsu was. 

“Suu-chan is being mean. You can’t cut off my news source.”

“I don’t understand why you need it in the first place. You live next door to each other, he always brings you to school on his back, and you’re in the same class.”

“That’s because Anzu sees a side of him I can’t.”

“Maybe if you didn’t sleep all day, you would see that side too.”

“Nope. Maa-kun may be my family, but even for Maa-kun, I can’t change the fact that I’m a vampire, so I need to sleep during the day to replenish my energy.”

Tsukasa could only sigh at Ritsu’s explanation; he knew he was getting nowhere fast. This argument always ended the same. Ritsu would say ‘No can do. I’m a vampire’ and then Tsukasa would be left absolutely exasperated. Though, his current exasperation went beyond Ritsu’s need to continuously insist that he was a vampire, but Tsukasa decided he would ignore that frustration for now, and focus on the task at hand.

“That aside, seeing as you’re up now please continue to be so. The first years will be here soon, and I would like yours and Narukami-senpai’s opinions on them.”

“Eh? But Suu-chan is the leader, so that’s Suu-chan’s responsibility,” Ritsu let out a yawn as he lazily waved his hand in a shooing motion towards Tsukasa. “Please take your responsibilities as leader seriously. Since Suu-chan is leader I was expecting to finally be able to take it easy now.” 

“Ritsu-senpai, I do believe for the most part you did take fairly easy last year, and I plan on making sure you work even harder this year, so please be prepared~”

Ritsu let out a groan, but Tsukasa didn’t give him much of an opportunity to protest.

“Now Ritsu-senpai, please stand up so we can make our way to the _lesson_ room where our juniors await.”

Ritsu didn’t look like he was in the mood for moving as he went back to ignoring whatever Tsukasa had to say as he laid back down on the floor with his back facing Tsukasa.

“Ritsu-senpai, I wish you would look at me when I’m talking to you.”

Tsukasa’s statement was met with silence once more. Getting a little frustrated that Ritsu was ignoring him, Tsukasa walked over to where Ritsu’s feet where and picked them off the ground.

“If Ritsu-senpai won’t listen to me then I will drag him over to the _lesson_ room by force.”

And with that, Tsukasa began walking as he dragged Ritsu’s body behind him on the floor. He tried to be as careful as possible to at least not hit Ritsu’s head on any furniture, but there was nothing he could do about the groove in the floor where the door opens to the studio. First, he heard a thump (which Tsukasa could only assume was Ritsu’s head) followed by a pained groan. Tsukasa couldn’t help but feel a little bad. But only a little. If Ritsu listened to him properly then he wouldn’t be dragging him on the floor in the first place.

“Ow. Ow. Ow. Alright Suu-chan you win. I’ll walk,” Ritsu said after his head hit a few more grooves in the floor. At that Tsukasa comes to a halt, releasing his hold on Ritsu as the other slowly gets up off the floor and causally brushes himself off. 

The annoyed glance Ritsu casted towards Tsukasa didn’t go unnoticed. 

“Please don’t look at me like that Ritsu-senpai. I asked you kindly to get up and you refused. That was the only way I was going to be able to get you to leave the _studio_. Now let us be on our way~”

Tsukasa went to go take a step forward when Ritsu grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him back, bringing him to an embrace.

“Ri-Ritsu-senpai, what on earth do you think you’re doing?” Tsukasa asked in a slightly horrified tone. He tried breaking free for Ritsu’s grip, but the older idol seemed intent on keeping him firmly in his grasp. 

“Suu-chan, carry me the rest of the way there.”

“Eh?! Ritsu-senpai, you have two functioning legs, please use them yourself and properly _escort_ yourself there.”

“But I’m tired.”

“And if you didn’t stay up all night you wouldn’t be so tired right now.”

“Suu-chan knows I can’t help that. For someone who hates to repeat what he says you sure make me repeat how I’m a vampire a lot to you.”

“That’s because you keep spouting such nonsense. Now, stop acting like such a child and start moving. We’re already running late as it is.”

“Not until Suu-chan agrees to carry me there. I won’t let go until you do.”

“Ritsu-senpai, please remember my position. You know I can’t show favoritism towards any members, so I can’t give you any sort of special treatment.”

“Why not? I’m your boyfriend.”

“Ri-Ritsu-senpai not so loud!” Tsukasa immediately went to cover Ritsu’s mouth fearing he would say something else. Ritsu gave him an annoyed look for covering his mouth and slowly pulled Tsukasa’s hands down.

“Suu-chan there’s no one even around to overhear us.”

“It’s better to play it safe than sorry,” Tsukasa sighed. “You are already aware how my parents cannot find out about our relationship. If rumors start spreading and it makes its way back to them, I fear the consequences I’ll have to face as a result.” 

Noticing how Tsukasa’s mood was taking a turn for the worse, guilt clearly eating away at him, Ritsu decided to let go of his hold on Tsukasa and give him a pat on the head.

“It’s fine Suu-chan, let’s go. I slept enough, so I can go the rest of the way on my own.” 

Tsukasa wanted to say something, but Ritsu was already five steps ahead of him. He took a few quick steps himself in order to catch up to Ritsu as the two walked together side by side to the lesson room.

When the two of them arrived, Tsukasa saw how Arashi was already sitting inside with the prospective first year members. He quickly apologized for running late and urged Ritsu to do the same. Though all Ritsu could manage was a yawn and a very dismissive apology as he took a seat with Tsukasa following promptly after him. 

After the three of them introduced themselves, they carried on with the audition process. Some of them were good, some were… less than favorable, but Tsukasa took meticulous notes on all of them the entire time. Meanwhile, Ritsu took the approach of listlessly watching and taking mental notes, while Arashi occasionally jotted down the information or details he deemed important.

Tsukasa was fully aware he was probably taking more notes than necessary, but he wanted to make sure he was being thorough as possible. The responsibilities of being a leader were bestowed upon him. Leo entrusted the future of Knights to Tsukasa, so he had to make sure he did not to let him down and lived up to those expectations.

After about two hours of evaluating of their capabilities in singing and dance plus an interview with each of the candidates individually, the last of the prospective members finally left and Tsukasa let out a huge sigh of relief. He remembered how nerve wracking it was to be the one auditioning, but he didn’t expect it to be just as much so now that he was on the other side.

There were only two spots available in Knights and eleven people in total applied. Tsukasa knew he was going to have to face the decision of who to accept and reject, but while two people were going to be incredibly happy, nine more were going to be disappointed.

“Tsukasa-chan is something the matter?”

“Ah, no. I was just thinking about how we have a tough decision ahead of us. I know it’s not like the dreams of nine people are coming to an end when we tell them they didn’t pass the audition process, but it will still be nine disappointed people. I suppose I’m seeing the weight of my decisions, and how it will affect someone for the next three years.”

“Well depending on how talks go between us it could be ten disappointed people or even eleven. Just because we have two open spots, that doesn’t mean we have to fill them up. Fufu. Actually, I vote to not pass anyone. That way Suu-chan can stay our ‘suekko.’”

“Ritsu-senpai, I really wish you would stop making fun of me in such a way.”

“Now, now, Ritsu-chan. We want Tsukasa-chan to become a good leader, right? We will need new members, so he can learn to properly lead others as well, not just us. It’ll only make it harder on him next year too when he has to do everything for himself, so let’s guide him while we still can.”

“Hmmm… maybe I’ll stay back another year. Then I can have one more year with Suu-chan and he won’t have to worry about being alone then.”

“Ritsu-senpai, please don’t even joke about that and properly graduate with Narukami-senpai. Weren’t you the one who said you wanted to graduate with Isara-senpai?”

“Yeah, I did, but Suu-chan is important too. You’ll be lost without me. Maa-kun will be fine even if I stay back a year.”

“If you hold yourself back a year on my behalf I could never forgive myself, so please make sure to properly graduate this year, Ritsu-senpai.”

“Suu-chan is no fun.” 

“Ritsu-senpai, this isn’t about fun. It’s abou-“

“Yes, yes. Alright you two. Ritsu-chan please stop teasing Tsukasa-chan about not graduating. And don’t worry Tsukasa-chan, I’m sure Mao-chan will make sure Ritsu-chan doesn’t slack off.”

“I’ll do what I can to make sure Ritsu-senpai doesn’t slack off too, but Narukami-senpai, if you notice him slacking off in any way, please feel free to let me know. I can’t let any members of Knights perform any less than satisfactory in either of our idol work or studies. As unit _leader_ , I will shoulder the responsibility to ensure everyone is taking their school life seriously as well.”

Ritsu could only let out a slightly annoyed grumble when he heard that.

“Alright, but don’t take on too much Tsukasa-chan. You have a lot on your plate as it is, so make sure you’re making time to relax as well. It’s bad for your skin to stress yourself out so frequently,” Arashi paused to look at the time before he continued. “I hate to cut our conversation short, but I have a modeling job I have to get to with Izumi-chan.”

“Ah, with Sena-senpai. Please give him my best regards.”

Arashi replied with a light laugh assuring he would before gathering up his things and heading out the door, leaving Tsukasa and Ritsu alone once again. Tsukasa thought about running through the applicants with Ritsu to get his opinion, but it didn’t feel right to discuss it without Arashi, so he decided to table the decision making for now until they could reconvene the next day.

“Ritsu-senpai, you’re not sleeping again, are you?” Tsukasa asked when he peered back over to Ritsu, who was suspiciously laying in his chair with his back to Tsukasa.

Silence.

“Ritsu-senpai.”

“No, I’m not,” Ritsu said with a rather annoyed tone as he sat back up again and stretched his arms. “Suu-chan would drag me by the legs again, so I’m staying up properly this time to avoid that. I have a bump on my head from earlier because you were dragging me along so carelessly.”

“I was being as careful as I could. Rather, if Ritsu-senpai stopped sleeping during the day, I wouldn’t have to resort to such tactics.”

Ritsu looked over at Tsukasa and shook his head, “Suu-chan puts on this gentlemanly front, but I already know your true nature, so there’s no need to hide it. I know how sadistic you actually are.” 

“What?!”

“Fufu. It’s fine Suu-chan. We all need some form of stress relief, but you shouldn’t take it out on your boyfriend.”

“If anyone here is a sadist, it’s you, Ritsu-senpai. Please don’t make such false accusations against my character. I certainly don’t take pleasure in seeing anyone in any form of pain, so I would rather if you didn’t say such baseless things that people can easily misunderstand.”

“Hmmm alright. If you say so Suu-chan,” Ritsu said as he got up and made his way to the door, to which Tsukasa promptly followed and grabbed him by the sleeve in order to bring him to a halt.

“I’m serious Ritsu-senpai. I don’t want our first years to get any weird ideas about me because of your _jokes_.”

Ritsu turned around and placed one hand on his head before lightly patting him, “I get it Suu-chan. It’s fine. I meant it too.”

Tsukasa took a close look at Ritsu, leaning in and looking into his eyes, as if he was trying to discern if he was telling the truth or not before ultimately letting out a sigh and letting go of Ritsu. Tsukasa resided himself to take what Ritsu said at face value, since he gave him no other reason to believe otherwise.

“Alright,” Tsukasa said, taking a step back way from Ritsu in order to give them some space. Tsukasa knew Ritsu had a bad habit of wanting to linger and stay closer than necessary if he wasn’t mindful of it.

Taking a look at the time on his watch, Tsukasa noticed how he still had quite a bit of time before his driver would call to ask when he would want to get picked up. Smiling to himself, Tsukasa decided to try to take advantage of that fact and see if Ritsu would like to spend some time together. 

“Ritsu-senpai, as a token of my appreciation for you giving the prospective members your full undivided attention shall I take you out to eat? Tenma-kun told me of a new cafe that recently opened up. Apparently their kakigori is very good and I’ve been meaning to go, so this might be the perfect opportunity to do so~”

“Hmmm?...” Ritsu said lazily which was followed by a yawn.

“Normally I would say letting me sleep would be good enough however...” Ritsu couldn’t hide the sly smirk on his face. “It’s not very often Suu-chan asks me out on a date.”

“Eh? That wasn’t my intention at all. I wouldn’t be so bold to call this a date.”

“But Suu-chan, you just clearly asked me out.”

“An outing, yes, but it’s just to thank you for your hard work.”

“Suu-chan, what do you think a date is?”

“When two people interested in one another go out someplace romantic or fun in order to enjoy each other’s company.”

“Suu-chan, what’s the most important part of a date?”

“The atmosphere?”

“Nope. If the atmosphere mattered then we wouldn’t have ever been on a date then, since Suu-chan is too oblivious to read the atmosphere properly.”

Tsukasa wanted to protest, but he cut him off before doing so.

“Try again.”  

And as much as Tsukasa wanted to argue, he decided to go along with what Ritsu asked and gave his question a bit more thought.

“I suppose it would be the time both parties spend with one another.”

“Yep. That’s right, so by that definition doesn’t what we’re about to do classify as a date then?”

The realization dawned upon Tsukasa how he had fallen for Ritsu’s ploy.

Ritsu carefully guided the conversation knowing how Tsukasa would respond in order for him to see his point and how he had, indeed, asked Ritsu out on a date. Tsukasa knew he should have expected nothing less from Knights’ strategist. Though Tsukasa wasn’t sure if he should be happy to see Ritsu putting some amount of effort into something, or frustrated that Ritsu wanted to expend his energy by teasing and proving him wrong.

“I suppose I cannot argue that logic.”

Regardless of how Tsukasa should feel, that didn’t change the fact that Ritsu presented a solid case. Ritsu also couldn’t hide his lazy smile when Tsukasa admitted to being wrong.

“Then it’s a date, Suu-chan~♪”

“I suppose it is, Ritsu-senpai.”

Tsukasa went to go pick up his bag off the floor and Ritsu did the same. Despite his frustration with Ritsu, Tsukasa found himself unable to hide his smile as he joined Ritsu by his side and he boldly took hold of his hand. He was only going to be able to do so until the school entrance, but Tsukasa figured it couldn’t be a bad thing to act like a normal couple every once in a while.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading. You can follow me on my twitter @KagayakuMyFaith and maybe I'll try to get better about tweeting there.


End file.
